Opinion Hypothetical 2021 Best 22

[Gralin]

The worst forward line in the league? Jesus Christ, that's one of the most dramatic comments I've ever heard. Especially when you follow it up with "After these two AA calibre forwards that every other club in the league would love to have, who kicks our goals?"

So we kicked more goals this year than
Carlton
GWS
Gold Coast
Essendon
Sydney
Fremantle
North
Adelaide

 

[MrPremiership]

So we kicked more goals this year than
Carlton
GWS
Gold Coast
Essendon
Sydney
Fremantle
North
Adelaide

Not bad considering we tanked for half a season

 

[TheFourPillars]

The worst forward line in the league? Jesus Christ, that's one of the most dramatic comments I've ever heard. Especially when you follow it up with "After these two AA calibre forwards that every other club in the league would love to have, who kicks our goals?"

The numbers don't stack up we had 7 teams in the league that had a lower points for than us. We can't be the worst just on that alone. Its the shock factor of the statement more than the actual

 

[Gralin]

Not bad considering we tanked for half a season

Where we fell down was Breust, Wingard and Gunston were the only players to average more than a goal per game
And Gunston was the only one that got close to 2 gpg

Still those 3 were inside the top 50 for average goals this season, Gunston was equal third.

 

[KermitJagger]

The numbers don't stack up we had 7 teams in the league that had a lower points for than us. We can't be the worst just on that alone. Its the shock factor of the statement more than the actual

Plainly obvious to anyone that watched us this year that it was a failure of our midfield that made both our forward line and back line look bad. I felt we did better than average at both defending entries and converting our own entries, there was just a severe imbalance in how many we got of each that made us look worse on the whole.

 

[TheFourPillars]

Plainly obvious to anyone that watched us this year that it was a failure of our midfield that made both our forward line and back line look bad. I felt we did better than average at both defending entries and converting our own entries, there was just a severe imbalance in how many we got of each that made us look worse on the whole.

Yep we got smashed in the middle in most games we lost.

 

[KermitJagger]

Yep we got smashed in the middle in most games we lost.

I'd even call smashed an understatement. We were last in team/opponent disposal differential by a large margin, last in clearances per game, centre clearances per game, stoppage clearances per game. We didn't even offer up pressure or decent defense to offset it.

Honestly it's amazing we managed to win a game with how much worse our midfield was than their direct opponents most of the time.

 

[Strapping Young Lad]

Does Hollands/Thilthorpe/DGB/Phillips get into the best 22 for Round 1 next year?

Good question. I think Thilthorpe would, and maybe DGB to get their development on the move, as they’re capable of playing in roles where it’s see ball-get ball, but the others might need to wait until round 5 to learn about more about midfield roles and where they need to be when the ball is with us or in transition.

 

[MrPremiership]

Good question. I think Thilthorpe would, and maybe DGB to get their development on the move, as they’re capable of playing in roles where it’s see ball-get ball, but the others might need to wait until round 5 to learn about more about midfield roles and where they need to be when the ball is with us or in transition.

Regardless of the player or talent, do we just play any draftee just to fast track development? i.e. 2005

What about our 2nd pick and/or Downie, how quickly should we push them in?

Sort of feel like a waste if they all don't play at least 10 games next year.

 

[kenneje]

I've been thinking about this non-stop and am really excited about next year. I don't necessarily think we'll be a mile better, but after the huge clean out, there are definitely going to be some changes.

I'm hoping for a few things;
- The forward line becomes a lot more aggressive and mobile.
- The midfield to get more control over games, at least halve the contested ball and give our forward line a bloody chance.
- The defence to continue as they were. In my opinion they did themselves proud last year considering the amount of high quality ball that was coming their way.

FF: Impey - Patton - Hollands
HF: Wingard - Gunston - Breust

MID: McEvoy - Mitchell - Worpel
MID: Phillips - O'Meara - Scully

HB: Scrimshaw - Frost - Day
FB: Hardwick - Hartigan - Hartley

BENCH: Shiels - Burgoyne - Maginness - Ceglar/O'Brien/Lewis/DGB

I am completely confident that we will be getting one of Hollands/DGB, and also Collingwoods first round 2021 pick in exchange for our 24 and next years second

 

[Judd2Sewell]

Not bad considering we tanked for half a season

We weren't tanking.

 

[MrPremiership]

We weren't tanking.

The big lead we squandered against Essendon, their only win for 3 months, was based on how good they were and not us ensuring a low finish?

 

[Judd2Sewell]

The big lead we squandered against Essendon, their only win for 3 months, was based on how good they were and not us ensuring a low finish?

Mate you're dreaming if you think Clarko would tank, never mind tank against Essendon of all teams.

We were simply out coached and comprehensively outplayed that second half by a (slightly) better team that finished higher than us on the ladder.

If we were tanking then why bother with that win against GCS that gave Sydney such a helping hand with their drafting? Losing that game would have been perfect for us.

 

[MrPremiership]

Mate you're dreaming if you think Clarko would tank, never mind tank against Essendon of all teams.

We were simply out coaches and comprehensively outplayed that second half by a (slightly) better team that finished higher than us on the ladder.

If we were tanking then why bother with that win against GCS that gave Sydney such a helping hand with their drafting? Losing that game would have been perfect for us.

We tanked.
We have tanked before.

 

[Judd2Sewell]

We tanked.
We have tanked before.

Yeah nah, we did not tank that game. It makes absolutely no sense to tank that game of all games. And the coaching group were filthy with the playing group after that game.

If we were tanking then we'd have lost against GCS, not flog them by 50 points.

 

[mustang]

Worpel played in his first season, regular by his second
Day looks like he made it to regular in his first
Hardwick, played in his first year, regular second year
Howe played early
Morrison played early
Morris this year played early
Finn got a look
Cousins got a look early
Lewis as well
Moore got a look early

We play kids we want to give a taste to or think are ready for a shot at stepping up
We had a period where the team was hard to break into from 2011-2016 because we had a very strong core that stayed on the park
We had some absolute champs that kids were stuck behind, of course they didn't see much action, that's the price you pay when you win 3 in a row though

We are still coming to terms with that age/experience gap in our list from competing and trying to stay up post competing.

This idea we don't give kids a chance though, yeah I'm not seeing that.

We gave debuts to 5 of our kids this year
115 out of 374 available games this year went to blokes who finished the season under 25

So 30% of games

We need more players that could become A grade talent Day maybe is one, number 4 pick this year could be another if we can get a pick in the teens by trading up in the draft is another. You can have a side that’s blooding youth but if they only become B Grades we won’t get far.

 

[HODGEYROAD]

We need more players that could become A grade talent Day maybe is one, number 4 pick this year could be another if we can get a pick in the teens by trading up in the draft is another. You can have a side that’s blooding youth but if they only become B Grades we won’t get far.

Spot on and the scope in our young players to reach A grade status is pretty limited bar a few exceptions.

 

[ML4Hodgy]

Yeah nah, we did not tank that game. It makes absolutely no sense to tank that game of all games. And the coaching group were filthy with the playing group after that game.

If we were tanking then we'd have lost against GCS, not flog them by 50 points.

While we may not have tanked, we might have let the players try to respond themselves. Good teams don’t rely on the coach to make adjustments.

 

[Collins-Langford-Ayres]

Is realising your oldies aren't good enough and playing the kids to give them a taste and see which ones are worth keeping, even if it means losing, tanking?

 

[Brant]

The big lead we squandered against Essendon, their only win for 3 months, was based on how good they were and not us ensuring a low finish?

We tanked.
We have tanked before.

What was our motivation for tanking that game?

And why would we tank that game, but not stay dead against Carlton or have (another) selection/game plan malfunction against Gil Coast?

 

[Judd2Sewell]

Is realising your oldies aren't good enough and playing the kids to give them a taste and see which ones are worth keeping, even if it means losing, tanking?

If we were doing that then Walker, Jones, Morris, Nash, Maginess, Moore would have been in the team all throughout the back half of the season.

 

[Pessimistic]

Lovell at 22 Hartung at 24

Howe at 31 Obrien at 28 Ceglar a rookie Whitecross at 29 Schoenmakers at 16

Hardwick at 44 Sicily at 56 Hill at 33 Smith at 19 Puopolo at 56 Rioli at 12 Sheils at 34 Bruest a rookie

Im backing the club to just keep doing what they do, even with 'just' 4 and 24

 

[WWSD]

Greaves, Moore, Jiath and Cousins will all be best 22 by the end of next year.

Cousins is likely to replace Shiels in the midfield at some point.

Jiath for Stratton, Greaves for Sicily, Day goes to the wing.

 

[KermitJagger]

Greaves, Moore, Jiath and Cousins will all be best 22 by the end of next year.

Cousins is likely to replace Shiels in the midfield at some point.

Jiath for Stratton, Greaves for Sicily, Day goes to the wing.

I hate to say it but I'm not necessarily sold that Jiath will be best 22. He has a lot of fans on this forum, but I he does too many bad football things for every nice athletic thing. If he and Greaves end up competing for the same spot, which I think they will, I think Greaves is more reliable.

 

[TheFourPillars]

Yep Jiath was completely lost on field as a defender